Chapter 11: A Rare Gem
Erza slashed her sword while gripping her side. A crystal disk shattered and a few more were sent out from the shadows to replace it. Natsu was doing a combination of dodging and punching to destroy the seemingly endless onslaught of lilac colored crystal disks coming from all directions.
"Where are they all coming from!" Nastu yelled as one managed to scrape his arm.
Erza deflects one with her blade and with trained quickness throw it into the dense forest. The disks stop coming at them for a moment and both stared at where the sword had gone. A very flamboyant man emerged with Erza's sword in hand and a rip in his otherwise flawless jacket. He playfully swung it with a grin before it slowly became encased in crystal and shattered. Erza looked at the shattered remains of her blade and was surprised at what just happened.
"You like the beauty of my crystals?" The man had a bit of arrogance in every word he said.
"Who the hell are you!" Natsu yelled.
Sharp eyes shot daggers at Natsu.
"So you think that it's polite to yell and point at people? Classless barbarian." The man said with a flick of his head.
"Why you..." Natsu started.
"Natsu, wait." Erza quickly interrupted, not taking her analyzing eyes of the man.
"I'll go ahead and answer your question anyway barbarian. It is only polite to do such a thing when in the presence of a lady." He gave a sexy glance to Erza
"I am Raluze Posatin. I'm also known as Gem and the fifth Astria Nyx. I was given the very ugly task of guarding the perimeter, but it seems that with a gorgeous and high class lady walking around it was worth it."
"I think that's pretty funny. Do you always try to kill those who are beautiful?" Erza said with a mocking tone.
Raluze's eyes narrowed and darkened.
"Always." He said with an evil voice.
The mood became tense as each one waited for the other to make the first move and trigger the start of the battle.
"AHHH! I'm sick of this!" Natsu yelled as he charged and Gem with a flaming fist. "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!"
Gem crossed his arms over each other with the palms in and the fingers pointed straight ahead.
"Crystal Encasement"
His feminine seal appeared, but far bigger. A large of slab of crystal came up as Natsu collided with it and in seconds he was blown back and encased in crystal, frozen in the last moment.
"NATSU!" Erza screamed
"I have no time for the ugly and barbaric. This is a fight between you and I, Erza Scarlet. Anything a threat to my beauty will be killed by me." His arrogance and charm disappeared from his voice. Now he had a more commanding and darker tone.
Erza quickly requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor and attacked his two swords. Raluze evaded and in a brief opening punched a harden crystal fist into Erza's chest. She hopped back a bit. The pain was intense even though it wasn't to strong. Her other wound was still causing issues.
"Nice maker magic. I've never seen that element before." Erza says, trying to buy time.
'Oh it's not maker magic. I have successfully combined several elements through the use of some Lost Magic and have created a completely new elemental magic. It's fused with other element's properties and I'm the only one who can use it." Gem said very proud in himself.
Erza quickly darted forward, taking advantage of him momentarily dropping his guard.
"Trinity Sword"
She slashed him in a delta formation. Leaving a triangle on his lime green shirt. He winced in extreme pain before putting his hand out and several crystal needles shot at Erza. She jumped back and dodged. In the next few seconds Gem was on his feet with crystal coating his wounds. He was already grinning.
"Like I said I have combined my crystals with other elements. I have encased the super heat of fire, but without the pain so I can apply it to my skin to sterilize the wound. I also gave it the healing ability of water to speed up recovery. You would have noticed if you had bothered being hit by the crystal. The barbarian did, but I suspect that Salamander wouldn't notice a little heat."
Erza stood and watched his wound close up rather fast. She threw several swords at him and he acrobatically dodged them. She threw one right at his face. Gem ducked and in that same moment Erza flipped the sword with another and the point went flying at the back of Gem's neck. It hit, but instead of a death the sword just floated there with the tip a few centimeters from his neck. Crystal crawled up on it and shattered the blade.
"I won't be cut anymore Erza. I have coated my body in crystal. Utilizing the lightness of wind, and the hardness of metal and earth I have created the perfect armor!"
"Many have said that. Many have been cut to pieces." Erza said confidently.
Erza lunged at Gem with her two swords. Raluze deflected them with his hand coated in crystal.
"Solid Script: Blizzard!"
Snow colored script appeared and from it erupted freezing winds and ice.
"Ancient Script: Blaze!"
Strangled symbols appeared in an intense fire. The ice and wind were destroyed due to the heat.
"Solid Script: Torrent"
The word appeared in a deep blue color and the humidity in the room soared. It was in italics and the lettering was skinny. A twisting body of water came out from it and extinguished the flaming word. Levy was panting hard. Cana was unconscious on the ground and Lucy was slumped against the back wall, unconscious.
"Give it up. You'll die if you keep doing this. Your almost out of magical power." Hex said
"I've got enough to beat you." Levy yelled back at her, trying to put strength in her voice.
"No, you don't. It's a fact. Earlier I set up Statute Number Five. What it does is drain the magical energy of anyone who uses magic in a set space. I, of course, am immune to the effects since I'm the one who activated it but you aren't. You must be feeling much weaker then when you fell in here."
Hex maid slow strides towards Levy.
"You probably can barely move."
With the back of her hand Hex hit Levy across the room.
Gray and Juvia were walking through the Forest again having regained their strength. Gray had insisted that they destroy Charmcasters bracelets and they did. Going through the woods again was still hard and long. They passes several trees and beasts that all looked the same after a while. They came the ruins of some big structure. They examined the ruins as they walked through, opening wondering what it was. While walking through the center of the ruins Juvia stepped on something an immediately stopped. She looked down.
"Gray-sama" She said with seriousness
Gray looked down as well and saw Lucy and Cana on the ground and Levy fighting someone. He tilted his head wondering why he and Juvia weren't falling, even though there was nothing under them. Levy and the other woman attacked each other and when they collided the blast sent derbies up at him. He jumped back, but when the rocks came up they stopped as pink symbols appeared and completely covered the hole.
"Juvia! We need to get down there!" Gray said with anger.
In moments Juvia sent blades of water at the hole and Gray fired lances of ice at it. Both attacks were deflected as pink symbols again covered the hole.
"What's with this magic?" Gray exclaimed after slamming an ice hammer at the hole with no effect.
"Gray-sama, the attacks had no effect, but what's even more important is that at no point did they look up even though we made a lot of noise."
Gray looked down and noticed the battle still going on with out any interruption.
"So what should we do?" Gray asked.
"Juvia doesn't think that there is anything we can do. The magic won't let us in and Juvia is sure that they are unaware of us being here. The only thing we can do is wait."
Gray's face clearly showed his displeasure with that option, but sat down next to the hole and watched as his friends fought the losing side of the battle.
Gajeel woke up in immense pain and strapped to a steel table. He turned his head and saw Wendy, Happy, and Charlie in similar situations. Gajeel tested the restraints and they wouldn't budge. Taking a look around, Gajeel noticed that this was the kind of science lab that was taken right out of Mad Scientist Magazine. There was creepy machinery everywhere and tons of monitors that showed who knows what on the screens. The door on the far side of the room opened and in came Metalo in a brand new white suit and a few bandages.
"Outstanding! You're awake even after I injected all those drugs into you. Well your blood test shows that most had no effect. Very impressive. As for the three over there," He pointed to Wendy, Happy, and Charlie "They were far less impressive. The two cats have little ability and the female has no strength. That one attack must have been a fluke."
Gajeel's eyes were furious with hate. He had such rancor for the man in front of him it almost hurt. He tried to change his arm into a club, but before it would change a loud alarm went off and a jolt of electricity went through his body.
"No, you can't leave yet. I've set the table your on to specifically block your abilities. Any attempts to use them will result in a painful shock, so I'd advise you to not try any tricks. Now really this analysis of you is unneeded, but Draco refuses to share his research. He's such a stuck up person. How could he think that his little advancement is any real achievement!" Metalo rubbed the sides of his nose with the hand that didn't have a clipboard in it. "Anyway I think that I have enough information to start extracting your magical energy. This will definitely speed up the summoning."
"So, what are you guys doing out here in the middle of this godforsaken forest with you secret base?" Gajeel asked stalling for time.
"Well, since you are going to contribute you might as well know. We are going to summon an army of demons that will be under our command and then we'll rule this miserable world. Every member of Astria Nyx and even Fallen Nemesis have been stepped on, looked over, and just ignored. We deserve so much more in this world and now were going to take it by force!"
"That's all! You're doing all this just to get even with some people! Life is hard and bad stuff is going to happen, but that's no reason to try to kill everyone!" Gajeel yelled at him.
"Silence!" Metalo shouted.
He turned to a machine and turned the knob to the right four clicks. An huge spike came up on the screen above the knob and Gajeel was hit with a more powerful, electric shock.
"Levy McGarden. You are trying my patience." Hex said clearly angered.
Levy and Hex's battle had been relatively equal in the beginning, but thanks to her runes Levy had been losing her magical energy. And was nearly out.
"Ancient Script: Magma"
Intense heat came off the curvy text that spelled 'Magma' and was a scarlet red color with black spots. The script melted down, into the floor in front of Hex and formed a line dividing her from Levy. Then the lava slowly spread in her, Cana, and Lucy's direction. Levy jumped back and narrowly avoided the strand of lava coming at her. She turned and ran to Cana and with a fierce tug she managed to get Cana and herself away from another strand of lava.
"Solid Script: Titanium"
The word 'Titanium' appeared in shiny silver, block letters in front of Lucy. Levy heaved Cana over by Lucy, saying sorry afterwords.
"Solid Script: Iron. Solid Script: Metal. Solid Script: Stone"
The three words simultaneously appeared in front of 'Titanium' in their own colors and lettering. Levy knew they wouldn't hold out long, but should stall the lava. The consecutive magic use though took a lot out of her and she was leaning over panting.
"You and your friends are in danger Levy. You don't have time to rest." Hex said in a confident pose.
Levy turned and saw that the lava had already eaten through stone and most of metal and now several streams of lava were heading to her too. She was on the verge of tears. She had done everything she could possibly think of, but to no avail. Her friends and herself are about to die. Tears started to fall down her cheeks as she sat down on the ground.
There's nothing more I can do. Maybe if I practiced more I could do more, but I can't, I just can't!
Levy thought back to all the times Jet, Droy, Gajeel, and everyone else said she should get her nose out of books and take on adventures. She thought of all the books she read and how they couldn't help her now and then it hit her. Levy grinned and stood up with confidence.
"What's with that new look?" Hex asked, still standing behind the lava.
Levy held out her hand.
"Sacred Script: Banishment"
End of Chapter 11